Google’s instant gratification for short attention spans

Search is big business, and for no company more so than Google. So when it unveiled its latest revolution in search engine technology earlier today, the world sat up and took notice.

Google Instant looks at what you’re typing into its ubiquitous search box and then predicts what you’re trying to find. So start typing and watch as the search results change in real time.

Auto-prediction for short attention spans

But is this just another way of pandering to our ever-shortening attention spans and thirst for instant gratification? No longer do you have to type the full phrase you’re searching for, or even press the ‘search’ button.

Searching under Google’s new regime means you can change your search as you type, based on the results appearing. And it’s strangely hypnotic watching the number of results decreasing as you type.

Your time is precious and Google knows it. By auto-predicting what it thinks you might be searching for, you’ll shave precious seconds off each and every search you make. Multiply that by the thousands of times you Google each year, and you might have recouped enough time to, erm, comment on this blog post.

But as with many of Google’s products, the dark side is never lurking far away. To use Google Instant you’ll need to be logged into your Google account (at least for anywhere other than in the US). And rather than relying on pure magic to work out what you might be searching for, the Google servers will use all the data they already have about your search habits to conjure up their predictions.

Instant gratification for advertisers too?

And there’s already some confusion over how this search shake-up affects the companies that pay for Google advertising. If you type “a” into Google Instant and get instant suggestions for “argos, amazon, asda and asos” how many search results, sites and ads will you miss out on?

And given that many people, myself included, have jobs that involve getting click throughs from Google – largely based on getting to the top of the search results pages – could today be a landmark in the relatively short history of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

Possibly not. For starters, a large proportion of people don’t have Google accounts. Many of those that do won’t be signed in when searching. And many more will be searching using other methods – the built-in browser search bars in Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google’s Chrome, for example.

At this stage, all we can be certain of is that Google Instant could mark a fundamental change in how we search. Let’s hope it turns out to be a change for the better.